Jay Quinn (27) won with a score of 18 points out of a possible 20 from Richard Christie (Mahia) 16.53, Maz Quinn (Gisborne) 14.07 and Morehu Roberts (Raglan) 11.62.
It is the prestige event of New Zealand surfing and has been held annually since 1963. Maz Quinn (34) has won it four times and was seeking a record fifth title.
"It is the New Zealand event that everyone wants to win," Jay said. "When we were younger, Maz always had it over me. It is good to get one back over him."
Maz also had the edge over his brother when he came with a late run to win the quarterfinal and semifinal ahead of his brother.
It was a star-studded final because Jay Quinn and Christie were ranked in the top 100 during last year's world qualifying series. Maz Quinn is the only New Zealand surfer to compete in the World Championship Tour.
It was the highest standard of surfing seen in Dunedin and this was demonstrated when defending champion Bill Stairmand (Raglan) finished third in his semifinal behind the Quinn brothers and did not make the final. Stairmand was ranked 67th in the world qualifying series last year.
Jay Quinn virtually had the title sewn up in the first 10 minutes of the 25-minute final when he scored 9.17 points with his first wave and followed it up with a score of 8.83 on his second wave.
He described his big-scoring wave.
"It was a medium-size wave and I wasn't sure which way I'd go when I was settling into the wave. I was looking to go right but I went left and ended up holding a wall and got three backhand re-entries."
Jay won his first men's open title at Piha in 2008 but also has happy memories of the first time he competed at the national championships at Dunedin, in 1999, when he won the under-16 and under-18 titles and was fourth in the open men's event.
The waves at St Clair beach yesterday were not as big as in the first three days of the championships. But they tested the ability of the surfers to put themselves in the correct position.
Christie, who is ranked 65th in the world and won his first open title in 2005, failed to catch enough good waves but he gave the most spectacular demonstration at the championships, when he did a 360deg turn on a very ordinary wave, to score 8.13 points on his eighth wave.
Former international Daniel Kereopa (Raglan) showed he still retains his old skills on the waves when he won the men's open stand-up paddle board title with 15.3 points.
The men's open longboard title was won by Thomas Kibblewhite (Auckland) with 14.83 points.
Malcolm Diack (Dunedin) won the men's kneeboard title with 8.27 points, and Ben Poulter (Raglan) won the men's under-18 title with 13.87 points from Tane Wallis (Piha) 12.72 and Jacob Kohn (Gisborne) 10.93.
